Ratimir Martinovic, pianist

»The ideal combination of intellect, technique and passion, refinement of touch, perfect technique, concentration and control, exceptional dynamic potential, original ideas and unconventional interpretations« give Ratimir Martinović, by the critics’ words, one of the leading places among pianists of the younger generation.

Born in Kotor, he graduated in 1999 from the class of Kemal Gekić at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad, playing in one night Bach’s »Goldberg Variations«, Beethoven’s »Hammerklavier Sonata«, Chopin’s Four Ballades, and Prokofiev’s «Toccata«, to great critical aclaim. He received his Masters degree, playing an all Bach program.

At present, Martinović works as Associate professor at the Academy of Arts, as the youngest piano professor and serves as the head of music department.

He has had advanced studies with well-known pedagogues and pianists such as Ivo Pogorelich, Karl-Heinz Kammerling, Hiroko Nakamura, Jacques Rouvier, Arie Vardi, Sergio Perticaroli and many others.

Since his twelfth year he has played in over six hundred recitals, chamber music concerts as well as with orchestra in almost all European countries, United States, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, China, Japan and Thailand. He has played in New York (Stern Auditorium at Carnegie hall), Rome (Auditorium Parco della Musica), London (St. John Smith Square, St. James Piccadilly), Shanghai (Oriental Art Centre), Prague (Rudolfinum, Smetana hall), Luxembourg (Auditorium of Banque de Luxembourg), Taipei (Hall of the National theater), Toronto (Glenn Gould Studio), Paris (UNESCO hall), Zagreb (Lisinski hall), Belgrade (Sava centre, Kolarac hall) as well as in Montreal, Moscow, Lisbon, Prague, Buenos Aires, Barcelona, Salzburg, Vancouver, Kansas City, Heidelberg, Bari, St. Petersbourg, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Beijing, Helsinki, Florence, Tubingen, Montpellier, Granada, Vicenza and elsewhere.

Martinović plays as soloist with orchestras such as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Mexico State Symphony Orchestra , Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vogtland Philharmonic, Thailand Philharmonic, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Plovdiv State Symphony Orchestra, Macedonian Philharmonic orchestra, North Czech Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, Radio-Televison Serbia Symphony Orchestra as well as witch chamber orchestras such as „Viotti“ Orchestra, Kaliningrad Chamber Symphony, St. Georg’s Strings, Young European Soloists, The Orchestra of the North Shore and many others, collaborating with conductors such as Alexandar Rahbari, Andres Mustonen, Emil Tabakov, Peter Sundkvist, David Porceline, William Noll, Aleksandar Ostrovsky, Gudni Emilsson and many others.

Martinović has recorded two CDs with the works by Bach/Tausing, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Prokofiev and Bach’s »Goldberg variations«.

He is the winner of many domestic and international awards and tributes.
After initial successes in piano competitions at very early age, Ratimir Martinović withdrew from the competition scene, devoting his time to playing concerts and teaching.

Martinović is the founder and member of KotorArt Trio, together with violinist Roman Simovic and clarinetist Aleksandar Tasic.

He is one of the founders of International Festival Kotor Art and Director of its music program called Don Branko’s Music Days.

During the 2012-2013 season he will be performing in Belgium, South Korea, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, USA, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Finland and Switzerland.

»Martinović offered the audience a fascinating interpretation of the
Hammerklavier Sonate, where passages of prosaic meditation, fugued cuts and eruptive, dramatic peaks heve been following one another in a unique manner…«

Dnevnik, Serbia, 1999.
»The great composer Chopin found in Martinović his great interpreter, both of them sharing the same passions…«

Turun Sanomat, Finland, 2000.
»Martinović played in an extremely powerful, grand style..Backed up by an excellent orchestra, he gave an evening of overpowering emotions…«

Pro musica, Serbia, 2001
»… an interpretation which, in its stratified shades,cherishes both loneliness and doubt and clarity and search for the lost time, for the just discovered sound, for Music itself…«

CKL,Montenegro, 2001.
»…Undoubtedly, Martinović belongs to the generation of most refined pianists…amazingly controlled touch which offers unexpected nuances of sound…«

Politika, Serbia, 2001
»Martinović performs with an immeasurable superiority…There is not one muscle that does not tremble, not one glance which turns away from the piano, there is just attention that cannot be disrupted by anything or anyone…He performs in semi-shade which suits his introspection..his sound has unusually reminded us of Dinu Lipatti…«

Luxemburger Vort, Luxembourg, 2001.

ratimir martinovic
»If the pianist’s personal style possesses its own charisma, its own special energy, and we can say this is undeniably the case with Ratimir Martinović, then we can relax, sit back and enjoy listening to these NEW old hits«

Dnevnik, Novi Sad, Srbija, 2004.
»Gigantically powerful and simultaneously refined performance… when Bach is performed like this, one can honestly enjoy it for hours… the only thing we could say after this magnificant recital was just-THANK YOU!!!«

Morning newspaper, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005.
»An artist of extraordinary and almost prayerful concentration, beautiful tone control, distinct polyphony, and the right balance of the intellect and sensitivity.«

Evening paper, Zagreb, Croatia, 2005.
»It seems that the sounds filling the concert hall don’t come out of the instrument we see on stage. It seems there are various instruments playing, that is how wide his colour range is. Bach’s work “Aria Variata Alla Maniera Italiana” BWV 989, sounds gently romantic and firm and determined and fragile like violin flageolets…

KotorArt – an independent initiative in culture, initiated in 2001 with the idea:

to define and promote the initiatives from the field of culture to domestic and world cultural public;
to establish a company to promote national and local cultural heritage;
international cultural exchange;
to organize high quality art programs of education and presentation of top world production.
In the era of globalization, modern electronic communications with an obviously fundamental effort for the dignity of survival of both the human race and the civilization, it is necessary to create an efficient model for acting in culture both as the level of cultural community, country, transparent society and the world community of diverse civilizations and cultures, with purposeful change of the existing models of acting in culture, having on mind preservation of tradition and local culture, production, innovation and exchange of cultural production with cooperation- relying on the existing institutions and the model of cultural acting.

What characterizes the group of activists gathered around KotorArt is primarily the consciousness of essential changes in the world whose integral par we are as well, and active production of cultural content- members of the organization are themselves active participants and active in the field of culture.